I was lucky that my boys were exactly the right age for the phenomenon that was the Harry Potter books. Each time a new one came out they would eagerly await their arrival from Amazon on the day of their release. We would order two copies to ensure that they could be read in parallel.
For me the books were an entertaining work of fiction from an inventive mind that inspired my children to read for which I was grateful. I didn’t think much about the detail that was written in them, dismissing it as nothing more than a work of fiction, until today that is.
Today we visited the Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibition that is on in the British Library. Like everything else that is Harry Potter related it was sold out a while ago and having been I can say that’s with good reason.
The exhibition merges the fiction of JK Rowling with the “factual” magical history from centuries of books and other artifacts. There were historical records including a six foot long scroll with the recipe to make your own philosopher’s stone and the first known reference to a hippogriff in print alongside original drawings and pages from notebooks from JK Rowling.
What came as a surprise to me (apart from that Rowling is a pretty good artist) was just how much of what you might describe as the background detail in the books is based on “fact”. I had assumed that the books were just a product of her imagination but, no, there is much there which is based on hundreds of years of mythology. Obviously not Quidditch or Hogwarts but much else and there must have been so much research that went into it to give the books an air of authenticity.
The event was very well laid out with rooms dedicated to lessons, so divination, potions etc. with each having a number of related and relevant artifacts in cabinets around the walls with one centerpiece. This layout, however, presented the biggest problem for me because while it wasn’t overly crowded everyone was crushed against the wall cabinets. Patience was required as you queued to get access to the next cabinet.
The whole thing was fascinating and I would have loved to have gone round alone to get better views of some things. Best bit? The empty cabinet with just a simple hook at the top and the card saying “Invisibility Cloak”!
And yes, when you have finished, it does exit via the gift shop where you can buy a copy of the official book at twice the price that you’ll find it on Amazon!
